Yeah, I agree - Arteta coming in will have given him a more reasonable excuse, but the fact is we’re probably looking at at least another 18 months without CL football, whoever had been appointed, and Aubameyang just doesn’t have enough years left to wait around and see how a rebuild pans out.
At this point I’d start thinking of replacements because trying to keep him is going to be massive waste of time and effort. If we can talk him into staying until the summer then I think we’ll have done well, but then if someone like Madrid come knocking with a good enough offer then I could see him being gone by the end of Jan...